I actually dug around other sources to do the sort of comparisons you're talking about, and the Globe's overall conclusions look reasonable in the larger context to me too:
Here's a graph of MA overall resident population changes over time. It pretty clearly shows that historically MA has tended towards steady overall population growth, and that the last two years have bucked this trend.
Here's a graph of overall US population growth, showing that the decline is MA-specific and not an overall reflection of slowing population growth or an overall US exodus.
Here's a graph of Maine's overall resident population changes over time. Note their recent trend looks like the inverse of Massachusetts: a sudden surge in population growth relative to historical trends that starts about the same time that the MA population growth stalls and reverses.
To me that data looks pretty consistent with the anecdotal comments we're seeing in this thread, too. (The top comment at the time I'm writing this is from /u/homeostasis3434 talking about how they recently moved from MA to ME.)
OptimalConcept t1_j9obspg wrote
Reply to comment by Cheap_Coffee in People are leaving Mass. Thoughts? by Original_Musician103
I actually dug around other sources to do the sort of comparisons you're talking about, and the Globe's overall conclusions look reasonable in the larger context to me too:
To me that data looks pretty consistent with the anecdotal comments we're seeing in this thread, too. (The top comment at the time I'm writing this is from /u/homeostasis3434 talking about how they recently moved from MA to ME.)